. >> welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. over the past week, peopling at the u.n. publicly weighed in the debate about what to do about the syrian conflict. today it was syria's turn to respond. president assad was unsurprisingly absent from the podium. instead, the talking was left to the country's foreign minister. walid muallem accused those spork terrorism in his country and prostriding arms to his army. he said calling president assad to step down would be serious to the affairs. he met with the secretary general to show compassion to their own people. but just how far is all the rhetoric got us? i'm joined here in the studio by steve from the u.s. institute of peace. steve, thank you very much indeed for coming in. listening to muallem's speech, what sort of insight does it give us into the way the syrian regime is thinking right now? >> well, the foreign minister repeated almost verbatim what they called this uprising from the very beginning. they depicted it as driven by foreign elements, as a conspiracy against the